


Duos or Duels (Celebrate HTTYD Day 2)

by amethystviolist



Series: Celebrate HTTYD Challenge Week [2]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Hiccstrid is implied, New Dragon, Temporary Amnesia, but it's not the focus here, does that count as a dragon OC? idk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-17
Updated: 2016-05-17
Packaged: 2018-06-08 23:28:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6879850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amethystviolist/pseuds/amethystviolist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some bonds transcend anything, and I believe that is true for Hiccup and Toothless. When Hiccup wakes up without any memory of the last two years, it's up to the other dragon riders to teach him how to fly a dragon and gt them safely back to Berk. But there's a mysterious dragon on the island that's making it hard for them to stay focused, and without Hiccup's developed dragon expertise and leadership skills, can the group manage to get back to Berk? And can Toothless and Hiccup's  bond survive starting from scratch?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Duos or Duels (Celebrate HTTYD Day 2)

**Author's Note:**

> Surprise, surprise... this one isn't finished either. I may or may not finish it when the week is over, we'll see. If you'd be so kind, I'd love a comment! Thanks!

“Hey! You have to wake up! Hiccup! Hiccup, open your eyes,  _ please _ -”

Grumpily, Hiccup cracked his eyes and squinted in the sudden brightness to find the person who was so determined on waking him up this morning. Blinking his eyes to clear them, a pair of bright blue eyes swam into view, looking down at him with concern that melted into relief.

“Thank the gods,” the girl muttered, and gave him a hard punch to the shoulder.

“Ow!” Hiccup complained as he shot into a sitting position and gingerly rubbed his new bruise. “W-What was that for?!”

“ _ That _ was for recklessly going after a new dragon without studying it first,” Astrid told him, her hands planted firmly on her hips.

“I- I went- Astrid, no one’s discovered a new dragon in two hundred years,” Hiccup told her confusedly. To further his befuddlement, she just rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, whatever. You’re hilarious,” she told him sarcastically. Hiccup helplessly watched her walk away, and Hiccup got to his feet, only to find that not only were Fishlegs, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Snotlout all standing near him... but also half a dozen very large dragons.

“Guys!” Hiccup hissed, his eyes wide with fear as the dragons nipped at each other or shook out their wings. “I don’t want to scare you, but you need to come toward me  _ really slowly _ .”

“Uh, why?” Ruffnut asked.

“Oh, oh, I know! Are we playing Smidvarg Says?” Tuffnut guessed excitedly.

“No!” Hiccup said in a loud whisper, eyeing the dragons uncertainly. “There’s a Zippleback, a Gronckle, and a Nightmare  _ right behind you _ !”

“Ha, ha,” Snotlout snorted at normal volume. “Very original. That only worked for that one time, you know.” Hiccup saw Snotlout try to look over his shoulder subtly, but somehow the teenager must have  _ missed _ the giant scarlet dragon behind him, because he turned back around like nothing was wrong.

“If you get eaten, it is not my fault!” Hiccup hissed. “Now come on! Just move slowly and quietly-”

“Hiccup, are you feeling any ill effects from that dragon’s blast?” Fishlegs asked, frowning with almost as much confusion as Hiccup was feeling. 

“I haven’t been blasted by any dragons, Fishlegs, seeing as how I’ve never really been as close to dragons as you are  _ right now _ !” Hiccup tried again, beckoning frantically for them to come over away from the dragons.

Looking very uncertain, the four teenagers exchanged confused looks but began to move toward Hiccup anyway. Occasionally the dragons looked up, but thankfully they ignored what the Vikings were doing for the most part.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Astrid said with annoyance, appearing from the trees to Hiccup’s right. He glanced toward her- then his gaze kept traveling up, and up, until he found Astrid seated on the back of what was clearly a Deadly Nadder.

_ What in Thor’s name was going on…? _

“We need to go after that dragon!” Astrid ordered. “Come on, let’s fly!” 

Hiccup was speechless. He honestly had forgotten how to speak. All the teenagers followed Astrid’s command, running to different dragons and mounting them as casually as one might a boat’s rowing bench. Fishlegs was smiling contentedly atop his Gronckle, Snotlout was smirking with his Monstrous Nightmare, the twins were predictably bickering with each other while seated on the two necks of one Hideous Zippleback, and Astrid was actually talking to her blue Nadder like she did this everyday.

“Hiccup, let’s go!” Astrid complained, and Hiccup turned his open-mouthed stare on her.

“You- You’re all  _ riding dragons _ ?!” he squeaked. He managed to clear his throat, and then continued, “What in the world possessed you to ride dragons? That’s insane! Does my dad know about this? Why did you take me here to see-”

Hiccup cut off with a fearful yelp as something warm and smooth butted into his arm from the side. The teenager scrambled back from the unknown black dragon that had silently appeared next to him.

“Is this the new dragon you mentioned?” Hiccup got out weakly, stumbling backwards over sticks and tree roots. The black dragon cocked its head curiously and took a few steps after him.

“Hiccup, you’re acting really weird,” Astrid commented, giving him an odd look.

“Sorry,  _ I’m _ the one acting weird?” Hiccup snapped back. “You’re all on top of dragons! How is  _ that _ not weird to you?!” The black dragon halted in its tracks at Hiccup’s tone, looking almost hurt.

“Hey, I know you were the first to get Toothless and all-” Tuffnut began,

“-but that doesn’t mean it’s weird for the rest of us to ride dragons,” Ruffnut finished.

“I- ‘Toothless’?” Hiccup repeated, finally convinced that everyone on Berk had gone insane. “What’s toothless?”

The others exchanged significant looks, most worried, a few baffled. Fishlegs slid down from his Gronckle, and Hiccup noticed that he actually had a  _ saddle _ attached to the back of the brown dragon somehow. They must have been doing this for a long time... How had no one else noticed?

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Fishlegs asked tentatively. 

“Why?” Hiccup asked suspiciously. 

“Just answer the question,” Astrid interjected.

“I… I was going to bed, after finishing my first prototype of the bola canon,” Hiccup recalled. “I think I need to recalibrate it, actually, I had planned to do that today before I woke up… here.”

“Oh, sweet Thor, please don’t bring back the bola canon,” Snotlout begged, letting his helmeted head drop with a metallic  _ thunk _ onto his dragon’s scales.

“Hey, isn’t that what hurt Toothless?” Ruffnut asked, and the twins both glanced over to the black dragon for some reason.

“I don’t understand,” Hiccup tried again. “Why are you all on dragons? How long have you been hiding this? If you know how to control them we might finally find the Nest-”

“Hiccup… What year is it?” Fishlegs cut in.

Hiccup answered correctly, but for some reason everyone else gasped.

“He’s a time traveler!” Tuffnut yelled, pointing at Hiccup wildly. “How did you do it? Tell me!”

“What? He can  _ time travel _ ?” Snotlout sputtered, then crossed his arms angrily. “Well… I could too, if I wanted to!”

“He’s not a time traveler!” Fishlegs interrupted, his voice annoyed. “Time travel isn’t possible… I think.”

“But he’s somehow skipped the last two years of his life,” Astrid argued. “How did that happen?”

“I skipped  _ what _ ?” Hiccup repeated worriedly, and the others looked back at him, almost as if they had forgotten he was there.

“We’ve got to get him back to Berk,” Fishlegs said finally, and there were a few nods of agreement.

“We’re not even on Berk? Great! This is great,” Hiccup muttered, his shoulders slumping forward. The black dragon appeared at his side again, pushing its nose into Hiccup’s side, and Hiccup jumped, hurrying away from the persistent creature.

“So you remember who we are?” Astrid asked, sliding off her Nadder and striding confidently over to Hiccup.

“Yes,” he said with confidence. 

“But you don’t remember Toothless, or anything about fighting dragons?” she clarified. 

“I don’t think so?” Hiccup guessed. 

“How are we supposed to summarize the last two years?” Astrid huffed, throwing her hands into the air frustratedly. “I mean, you- you’ve changed  _ everything _ !”

“Wait, if he doesn’t remember who Toothless is, how is he going to fly back?” Fishlegs spoke up.

“Woah, hang on! Do you remember the prank we pulled on Mildew with the yak milk?” Tuffnut spoke up loudly.

“Or on you with the bucket of water and sack of flour?” Ruffnut asked.

Bemused, Hiccup shook his head. The twins exchanged a look of devilish excitement at that, and suddenly Hiccup was reconsidering his answer.

“Okay, I got this,” Snotlout announced, less-than-gracefully getting off his dragon’s neck and landing on the ground with most of the others. Hiccup noticed Astrid’s look of skepticism as Snotlout approached the group and cleared his throat importantly.

He pointed to the black dragon. “That’s Toothless. He’s a Night Fury, and you two fly together after you injured him and then rebuilt this thingy to help him fly again. You kept Toothless a secret and then tied with me for first place in Dragon Training-”

“Snotlout!” the others chorused.

“-okay, fine, maybe you placed first in Dragon Training. And then at your final fight you said that dragons could be good and tried to train the dragon you were supposed to kill. But something went wrong, and the dragon got scared, and then Toothless magically showed up to defend you. Then Stoick got the- You remember who Stoick is?”

“Uh, last time I checked, he was my dad?” Hiccup replied, only partially sarcastic.

“Correct,” Snotlout nodded decisively, and continued the spiel of information. “So Stoick used your dragon to lead everyone to the Dragon’s Nest and then you knew about this giant queen dragon waiting for them but they wouldn’t listen, so you showed us all how to train dragons, which was my idea-”

“Snotlout!”

“-Fine, so it was  _ your _ idea, whatever. And then we all showed up and helped save the Vikings, and you had an epic battle with the queen dragon, and she exploded and it was kind of awesome. Then we found you, and Gobber made you a new foot, and then you learned how to fly the-” 

Snotlout was still talking, but Hiccup had stopped listening. 

A new foot?

He looked down for the first time, and found one furry boot on his right foot… And a shiny piece of metal on the other side.

Hiccup didn’t mean to sit down, so he really more fell down, staring at his prosthetic in shock. He was missing a foot. He went to bed last night and this morning woke up to a new world with Vikings riding dragons- a movement he himself had apparently started- and he was missing a foot.

“Snotlout, that was the worst  _ possible _ way to tell someone news like that!” Astrid snapped.

“Well, that’s what happened! You asked me to summarize and I’m not even done with the Dragon War- I was trying to be brief!” Snotlout defended himself.

Of all people, it was Ruffnut who crouched down beside Hiccup and shook his shoulder lightly. He looked at her and blinked to make her face come into focus.

“Breathe,” she commanded bluntly. Hiccup obeyed, and his vision cleared a little more. “You’re fine now. You’ve been working on a new mechanism for your leg anyway, and you can still fly Toothless, and everything is okay.” Ruffnut stood, crossing her arms and looking away. “So, quit freaking out, it’s freaking  _ me _ out.”

“Sorry,” Hiccup managed to get out. “I’m… Well, this is a lot to take in.”

“We haven’t even gotten to the Academy,” Fishlegs sighed, offering a helping hand and hauling Hiccup to his feet ( _ foot _ ).

“Or Alvin,” Astrid added quickly.

“Or yaknog,” Tuffnut grimaced.

“Or exploding dragon eggs!” Ruffnut exclaimed.

“Or that cave thing Toothless does,” Snotlout pointed out.

“Or Heather.”

“Or Hamish the Second’s treasure.”

“Dagur.”

“The Frightmare.”

“The Screaming Death!”

“Helping Scauldy!”

“Thornado!”

“Mildew!”

“The Boneknapper!”

“OKAY!” Hiccup finally yelled, and the group fell quiet. “I get the idea, I’ve missed a lot… somehow. Does anyone have any possible explanations for what happened to me?” 

“I actually have one preliminary theory,” Fishlegs spoke up after a moment of hesitation. “When you approached the new dragon, Meatlug just happened to sneeze- the poor girl and her allergies- and I think that  _ might  _ have scared the dragon into attacking you.”

“But it wasn’t fire that she breathed,” Astrid picked up, then added bluntly, “If it had, you’d just be dead. Instead she hit you with some kind of shimmery mist. You collapsed and started twitching, and… Well, then a few minutes later you woke up.”

“So this… new dragon… made me forget the past  _ two years _ ?” Hiccup summarized.

“Now that’s cool,” Tuffnut breathed.

“There is  _ so _ much we could do with that,” Ruffnut added dreamily.

“The  _ point _ is,” Fishlegs said loudly, “Now there’s a grounded dragon without a rider and… And honestly I don’t know how we’re going to tell Stoick about this.”

The group fell silent, and Hiccup wondered if the same dread in the pit of his stomach was felt by the others. The chief would  _ not _ be pleased to hear about something that had injured his son, and from the sound of it, Hiccup himself was at fault.

“I’ll handle Stoick,” Hiccup sighed after a long moment. “I’m more worried about the dragons! Does my dad know you’re riding them?”

“Oh yeah, I’m pretty sure he knows,” Snotlout snorted. “Especially considers he rides one, too.”

“He- He  _ what _ ?” Hiccup yelped. “My dad- He’s been riding dragons?! But... He hates dragons!”

“He used to hate dragons,” Astrid corrected him. “Now they’ve… moved in. We have cleaning stations, feeding troughs, fire prevention-”

“Fire prevention? That explains so much,” Tuffnut muttered.

“-and you invented all of it so that the whole tribe can live with their dragons,” Astrid finished, solidly ignoring Tuffnut.

“I… I invented all that?” Hiccup repeated, his jaw hanging open.

“And dragon saddles. And you might as well write a new dragon manual at this point, because your notes are getting out of hand,” Astrid added.

“Blasphemy!” Fishlegs hissed, looking personally affronted by the idea of replacing the Dragon Manual.

“Yeah, yeah, alright! We get it! Hiccup is the best Viking ever, hooray, now can we go back to getting home?” Snotlout groused.

‘Best Viking ever.’ Hiccup stored that away carefully as even more proof that the last two years must have been  _ wild _ .

“I rarely say this, but Snotlout makes a good point,” Fishlegs admitted. “We’re out too far for the other dragons to carry Toothless back.”

“Toothless is the black dragon?” Hiccup clarified.

“A Night Fury,” Fishlegs nodded. “He’s missing his left tailfin from an accident you caused.”

“Yeah, Snotlout mentioned that,” Hiccup agreed.

The black dragon appeared silently at Hiccup’s side. Hiccup warily watched the dragon, but Toothless just made a soft crooning sound and tilted his head almost questioningly at the human. Hiccup leaned to one side and examined the saddle and mechanism on the Night Fury’s back and tail. He noticed there was an altered metal stirrup on the left side, and Hiccup’s missing leg somehow tingled.

“Weird,” he said at last.

“Can you fly with it?” Tuffnut asked.

“I- I don’t know about- Do you really think  _ flying _ on a  _ dragon _ is a good idea?” Hiccup said nervously. “I know I apparently flew here, wherever ‘here’ is, but- That is just  _ insane _ .”

There was a long pause in which the five teenagers stared at Hiccup in disbelief, and he squirmed rather uncomfortably under their sudden scrutiny.

“It’s like he’s a whole different person,” Ruffnut finally commented, and there were a few baffled nods of agreement.

“Hiccup, if you want to go back to Berk, you’re going to have to learn how to fly Toothless’s rigging,” Astrid said bluntly. “No one else knows how to work it.”

“Your muscles might remember even if your mind doesn’t,” Fishlegs added helpfully. “Just get on Toothless and see what happens.”

Hiccup turned to stare at the large dragon apprehensively. Toothless gave him what appeared to be a gummy smile. Wait a second...

“He really doesn’t have teeth?” Hiccup asked in surprise, tentatively stepping closer to the dragon. A toothless dragon had to be a  _ little _ less dangerous, right-

Sharp white rows of teeth suddenly shot into existence as the dragon reared up and snatched a fish from the air.

“Snotlout!” disapproving voices chorused in annoyance.

“What? He  _ does _ have teeth, I was trying to help!”

“Retractable teeth,” Hiccup squeaked, his hands held protectively close to his chest. He had already lost one limb, and he planned on keeping the remaining three far away from sharp dragon teeth. The black dragon made a sort of chortling laugh in his throat, and gently nudged Hiccup’s stomach with his nose. Hiccup kept his hands out of reach, and eyed the Night Fury warily, but he didn’t try to back away this time.

“Do the hand thing,” Snotlout said in a loud whisper. 

“What?” Hiccup asked, not daring to take his eyes off the dragon.

“The hand thing! You stick out your hand and magically tame dragons,” Snotlout tried to explain. Hiccup risked glancing over his shoulder to give Snotlout a look of confused disbelief.

“That makes no sense!” he hissed, and turned back to watching Toothless. The Night Fury warbled softly and nudged Hiccup’s stomach again. Hiccup finally took a few steps back, shaking his head.

“I can’t do this,” he muttered. “I can’t. This is insane. You are all insane.”

Toothless made a low rumbling sound in his throat and gave Hiccup a look of deep confusion and hurt. 

“Stop that,” Hiccup told the dragon. “I don’t remember you. I don’t know how to help you.” he turned to the other teenagers, but they simply watched, apparently at a loss for what to do. 

Toothless made a sound of frustration and turned to one side, looking over his shoulder at Hiccup and shaking the saddle on his back.

“No way,” Hiccup said immediately. “No. Nuh-uh. I am not getting on the back of a  _ Night Fury _ , that is definitely not happening.”

“Haven’t you ever wondered what the clouds look like up close?” Fishlegs said suddenly. The others all looked at him strangely. “At sunset they glow with bright colors,” the large boy carried on. “And at night they shine with moonlight.”

“Above them it’s like a different world,” Tuffnut added excitedly. “And the wind, like, makes your cheeks do this weird jiggly thing.”

“You can see  _ everything  _ from dragonback,” Snotlout picked up. “Once I rescued like a hundred sheep from falling off a cliff.”

“Dragons heat up, so it’s not even that cold,” Ruffnut continued. “And we have races and trick contests and set things on fire just for fun.”

“That’s  _ target practice _ ,” Astrid corrected, “But thre aren’t any words good enough to describe flying on a dragon. It’s something you have to experience for yourself.”

Hiccup had his arms crossed, but he looked thoughtfully at the sincerity on the faces of his peers, and then back at Toothless’s hopeful expression.

“Once you told me that flying is the only thing that makes you feel truly free,” Astrid added more quietly.

Toothless warbled softly as if in agreement.

Finally, Hiccup sighed in defeat. “You realize that if I die, you’re the ones who have to tell my dad?”

“Ha!” Tuffnut yelled triumphantly. “That’s what you think!”

There was an awkward pause where the Berkians tried to piece together the meaning of that sentence and failed.

Hiccup decided to change the subject. “Okay, so how do I… Do I just...” Hiccup gingerly swung his good leg over the saddle, eyeing Toothless’s head cautiously. At least the dragon couldn’t bite him like this.

“The strap with the hook goes on that ring… I think,” Fishlegs said uncertainly. Hiccup attached the strip of leather as suggested, and very distinctly did not feel reassured by the tiny string connecting his life to a moving dragon.

Toothless shifted under the rider’s weight, and Hiccup jumped in surprise. The dragon made a noise of complaint, and Hiccup could hear the twins snickering.

“They will never let me forget this,” Hiccup grumbled, and Fishlegs nodded somberly. Hiccup cautiously examined the rest of the saddle before deciding that he might as well put his feet into the two stirrups. The second his metal prosthetic touched the bottom of the mechanism, a clasp sprang out and locked around the foot. Hiccup yelped in surprise, yanking on the prosthetic and the interlocking pieces with no visible effect.

“I’m stuck!” he cried. “Fishlegs, how do I get it off?”

To Hiccup’s horror, the blonde boy shrugged helplessly. “I never needed to know how to work it. I have no idea how you came up with this stuff, much less how it functions.”

“Astrid?” Hiccup tried desperately.

“I didn’t even know it did that,” Astrid replied with interest. Hiccup rolled his eyes to the sky before closing them hopelessly.

“I’m going to die,” he moaned. “I’m going to be stuck on a dragon for the rest of my life- AH!” Hiccup ended in a yell as Toothless’s wings gave a sudden, strong flap and the pair rose off the ground.

“Way to go!” Fishlegs cried.

“He remembers!” Astrid cheered.

“HELP ME!” Hiccup screamed. Toothless flapped his wings harder, clearing the treetops with apparent difficulty. Hiccup tried to scrunch down farther in the saddle, as if his weight might glue him to his seat, but something underneath his metal foot clicked, and Toothless suddenly shot up into the air with a surprised roar.

“I have so many regrets,” Hiccup muttered to himself, his eyes squeezed tightly closed as he clung to the saddle with every ounce of strength he possessed. Toothless made a crooning noise, then suddenly dropped to a lower altitude, Hiccup’s stomach plunging along with the drop in a way that was… kind of awesome?

He very cautiously cracked open one eye as the dragon leveled off.

The tiny island below him was covered in leafy green trees and craggy outcrops of rock, and Hiccup found himself in awe at how small it all seemed to be. Clouds above him were close enough to almost touch, and Hiccup found the courage to reach up and brush one, his hand coming away wet and cold. In the meantime, Toothless was struggling to stay aloft. When Hiccup noticed a particularly shaky drop, he decided to try something to help. He invented this saddle thing, and by Thor, he was going to figure out how to work it again. Inspired by the accidental liftoff he had achieved before, Hiccup experimentally wiggled his prosthesis in its mechanical stirrup. 

There was another click, and this time Toothless suddenly dropped to the left. Both human and dragon screeched in surprised fear, until Hiccup pressed the pedal to the side, and thankfully straightened their course.

“Sorry,” Hiccup called over the roaring wind. Toothless twisted his head and lightly slapped Hiccup with an ear flap, rumbling discontentedly. “I don’t know how to work this thing, give me a break!” 

They made a few circles, and Hiccup had a strange sense of deja vu. Perhaps Fishlegs was right about his body remembering what his mind couldn’t, because dodging tall trees or whirling around clouds seemed to be as easy as breathing. He hardly had to think about the pedal’s existence at all, and flew with Toothless in near-perfect synchronization.

Finally, Hiccup nudged Toothless into a dive, and the pair alighted in the clearing where they had left the others. Immediately, Astrid ran over to them, her face grim and drawn.

“Hiccup, where have you  _ been _ ?” she demanded, her voice low but full of anger. “You can’t go off flying when the rest of us are in danger! Something happened to Fishlegs, I think he hit his head or something. He needs-”

“Wait, hold on, I wasn’t flying for fun!” Hiccup defended himself. “You and Fishlegs practically forced me to get on Toothless. I still think flying on dragons is crazy, remember?”

Astrid rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that’s hilarious. You’re crazy, I knew that already. Now come on, get the twins to leave Fishlegs alone.”

Hiccup lifted his leg over Toothless’s side, but his prosthetic foot wouldn’t budge. He belatedly remembered the clasp locking it in place, and sighed through his nose. 

“Toothless, can you take me over there, please?” Hiccup asked, uncertain if the dragons understood Norse. Apparently Toothless did, or at least got the idea, because he began to lope toward the circle of worried dragons and riders.

“Why don’t you just walk?” Astrid asked suspiciously. “Are you injured?”

“My leg is still stuck,” Hiccup admitted. “I remembered how to fly the rigging, for the most part, but that bit of information didn’t come back.”

Astrid frowned, looking confused. “What do you mean, you remembered-”

“Hiccup!” Fishlegs cried. Toothless nudged his way through the surrounding people until Hiccup could see Fishlegs sitting on the ground, looking bewildered. “I think Ruff and Tuff kidnapped me!”

“Well, they couldn’t have kidnapped  _ me _ , I’m too powerful!” Snotlout huffed. “But I’m still here and I don’t know why, so they’ve done  _ something _ to us.”

“If they kidnapped you, they didn’t get very far,” Hiccup said with amusement. “You’re still in the same clearing.”

“I’m… what? No, I was on Berk! Then I just woke up here!” Fishlegs protested. “This is definitely not Berk! The flora is entirely too typical of southern islands.”

“It’s not Berk because then there would actually be a village on the island,” Snotlout groaned. “I already went up on Hookfang and checked it out. I have no idea where we are!”

“Dude, I think we found a new island,” Ruffnut said, nudging her brother.

“Does that mean we get to name it?” Tuffnut said excitedly.

“No!” Hiccup said quickly. “I don’t think you were kidnapped, and I don’t know who found the island. I think now we’ve  _ all _ been affected by the new dragon.”

“New dragon?” Fishlegs and Astrid said together. 

“Apparently it has some sort of spray that erases memories,” Hiccup relayed. “Apparently I was the first to get hit, and you told me that I forgot the past two years.”

“I remember that,” Astrid said suddenly, her eyes widening. “I don’t know how I had forgotten...”

“I don’t remember that at all,” Fishlegs replied skeptically.

Hiccup sighed. “Look, just trust me, Fishlegs. After we get back to Berk, we can hash out what happened for sure.”

Fishlegs finally nodded, though he looked doubtful. “Alright. I think we’re somewhere to the south of Berk, so we could just fly north…?”

“But we could fly north for  _ days _ and not land on Berk if we’re too far east or west,” Astrid countered.

The group looked expectantly at Hiccup.

“What?” he finally asked. “Why is everyone looking at me?”

“This is where you come up with some crazy idea to save the day,” Snotlout said unhelpfully.

“Why is that  _ my _ job?” Hiccup demanded. “I can’t even get off my dragon! You’re trusting me to get all of us off an island?”

“That is an excellent point,” Tuffnut mused.

“I know! We split up, and meet back here if any of us finds Berk,” Snotlout cried.

“What if we get lost?” Astrid huffed. “Then we’re lost  _ and _ separated.”

Ruffnut said something, but Hiccup blinked a few times and couldn’t remember what she had said.

“Could you repeat that?” he asked apologetically.

“Repeat what?” Ruffnut replied, looking at him with confusion.

“Hey, this isn’t Berk!” Snotlout yelled suddenly, looking around the island angrily. “Where are we? Hiccup, if this is another training exercise that dumps us in the middle of nowhere then I swear to Thor I’m going to-”

“Snotlout, we  _ just _ talked about this,” Astrid interrupted with annoyance. “We lost our memories and we’re trying to get back to Berk.”

“We lost our memories?” Snotlout yelped, clutching his head fearfully. “How?!”

“A dragon with an amnesiac toxin of some type,” Fishlegs answered, looking at Hiccup with a new sense of understanding.

“A dragon with what now?”

“Its breath steals your memories,” Ruffnut clarified in a bored tone, then suddenly perked up. “Hey, we should name it!”

“We haven’t even  _ seen _ it,” Tuffnut replied haughtily. “We should see it first.”

“What if we’ve seen it already and we just can’t remember?” Fishlegs whispered, and the group of teenagers froze in fear.

Toothless began to growl, vibrating with anger beneath Hiccup, and that just confirmed that they needed to get back to Berk and  _ fast _ .


End file.
